Independent News
Fox News caught (again!) deceptively editing video of Joe Biden's Veterans Day speech
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This is the very definition of “fake news.”
Satchel Paige was a baseball player who pitched in what were, at the time, referred to as “the Negro Leagues” In the early 1900s, separate professional baseball leagues existed for African Americans and Latin Americans due to segregation. In a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, President Joe Biden started to refer to Paige as “a great Negro League pitcher,” but then paused and shifted to saying “at the time, pitcher in the Negro Leagues.” That night, Fox News’ Sean Hannity made a big show of being aghast that Biden used the term “Negro,” even though that was what the leagues were literally called.
On Friday, morning show Fox & Friends took things a step further. The show edited the video to eliminate any reference to the Negro Leagues in order to make it appear that Biden just randomly and insensitively used an out-of-date and racist term.
Fox News then proceeded to make this the top story throughout the day, though the network later gave up on the attempt to force outrage after it was viciously mocked for editing the video.
In case there’s any doubt about the dishonest editing of the Fox and Friends version in the second tweet, note that Biden’s hand disappears, along with his actual words, at the 11-second mark.
The network tried to save face when confronted by the Associated Press, of course, blaming a ticking clock instead of its political goals for the unforced error.
When editing video, journalists have an obligation to keep statements in the context they were delivered or explain to viewers why a change was made, said Al Tompkins, faculty member at Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. In this case, the edit is not at all clear, he said.
A Fox spokesperson noted that the full remark was used when the story was repeated two other times on “Fox & Friends,” and said the one-time edit was made because of time constraints.
Sure, unnamed spokesperson, that’s the ticket. Notably, as of Saturday morning, Fox News still has a story up about the supposed “gaffe,” and a quick glance at the comments shows the story is having the desired effect on the Fox audience.
Fox News, of course, is no stranger to altering photos or video in order to serve its goal of attacking Democrats and real journalists. Hell, they’ve been doing it for decades. No real, ethical news outlet would ever allow such a thing, but Fox isn’t a a real, ethical news outlet, is it?
We can and should treat Fox as the trash it is.
New documents show how Trump silenced scientists, gutted guidelines, and hid facts from the public
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The House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has been in the news so much lately that it seems like it would be easier to just refer to it as simply the Select Committee. But it’s not the only one. There is also the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which was formed back in April 2020 and is still very much in business. Despite its relative absence from the news, this subcommittee has been busy investigating topics ranging from illegal evictions during the pandemic to how to fight vaccine resistance.
But it’s a series of just-released documents from that committee that may make the media remember that this committee is out there. Working with both emails and texts, the committee shows both the extent to which members of the Trump White House interfered with efforts to protect the public, and the way they consistently worked to downplay the threat—leading to disaster.
Those efforts extend back to appearances by Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, at the very outside of the pandemic in February of 2020. In a pair of appearances, Messonier warned that the spread of COVID-19 in the United States was a matter of “when not if,” and that “disruption to everyday life may be severe.“
Neither of those messages met with Donald Trump’s approval. From that day forward, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were forbidden from holding briefings, and the White House took over coronavirus messaging. A day after Messonier’s bracing talk, Trump went on to tell the nation that “we have a total of 15 people” with COVID-19, and they are “all getting better.”
As the documents show, shoving the experts off-screen to replace them with happy talk was just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg.
The emails obtained by the subcommittee show that Trump was “angered” by Messonier’s entirely accurate assessment of the situation. The CDC was then blocked from giving any public briefings for over three months, at a critical time when the disease was spreading, but knowledge of things like mask efficacy and what situations were most likely to spread the virus was improving.
- When Trump brought in COVID-19 skeptic Scott Atlas as a “special advisor” to the coronavirus task force, Atlas immediately moved to drastically reduce guidelines for COVID-19 testing. Dr, Deborah Birx confirmed to the committee that this move was made specifically to reduce the level of testing across the nation, generating a false impression of the level of new cases.
- HHS political appointee Paul Alexander demanded that CDC stop publishing scientific reports he believed were damaging to Trump. CDC officials were then ordered to delete Alexander’s emails to cover up this attempt to quash vital public data.
- Dr. Messonnier was told in very clear terms to shut up by both former HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Trump-appointed CDC director (and now vocal “blame China” proponent) Robert Redfield.
- CDC communications officer Kate Galatas was refused when she asked to hold a briefing in April to share information on a new CDC recommendation to wear face coverings and new evidence of how the virus represented a threat to children. The idea that the CDC was somehow against masks would persist for months.
- The CDC team swiftly became so frustrated by their inability to get out accurate information, that they tried to circumvent Trump’s coronavirus task force to get guidelines on safe working conditions out to hard-hit meatpackers. They got caught, and the language in the CDC guidelines was “softened” by Redfield, in order to align with Trump’s demands that people stay on the job. Over 250 meatpackers died and 59,000 tested positive.
Throughout the pandemic, Trump and his team worked to stifle the release of accurate information, to block scientists from talking to the public, and to spread false information designed to downplay the threat. All of this makes it seem that this particular select subcommittee could easily join the Jan. 6 select committee in asking the DOJ for criminal indictments.
Roughly 1,300 children evacuated to U.S. from Afghanistan are waiting to be reunited with parents
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CBS News reported in August that at least 34 Afghan children were classified as “unaccompanied minors” after being evacuated to the U.S. without parents. In the months since the Biden administration evacuated tens of thousands of refugees as part of Operation Allies Rescue, the number of unaccompanied Afghan children here is now approximately 1,300, Health and Human Services (HHS) tells Reuters.
“Many of the Afghan minors were unintentionally separated from their parents in Kabul, advocates said,” as reported by Reuters. Among them was 10-year-old Mansoor, who is currently living with relatives in Washington state. He was separated from his family while the Kabul airport was under attack.
Reuters reports that Mansoor was separated from his family as the Kabul airport was attacked with artillery fire. When the military rushed to shut the gates, Mansoon was caught inside, his parents and siblings outside. Mansoor was thankfully not alone, because a relative, Shogofa, had also made it inside the airport. They waited for Mansoor’s family for several days, but eventually had to evacuate.
“Shogofa ended up on a U.S. military base in New Jersey with her own two young children, Mansoor, and other relatives. After several weeks, they joined her sister, Nilofar, who lives in the Seattle area,” the report said. “Mansoor’s parents are currently in hiding in Afghanistan because of his father’s former position in the Afghan government.”
Even though Mansoor traveled with a relative, he’s classified as an unaccompanied minor because that relative was not a parent. Reuters reports that, while the vast majority of Afghan unaccompanied minors have been released from HHS custody to relatives already here, 266 Afghan children currently remain in custody because they have no family here. “The children will likely have to find legal help to navigate the complex immigration system.”
Officials told Reuters that the “administration of President Joe Biden is working on ways to expedite the entry of parents whose children are already in the United States,” but advocates remain frustrated by delays. It’s nearly mid-November, and the weeks of uncertainty around the status of parents “is causing huge amounts of stress and trauma for the children, said Jennifer Vanegas, supervising attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.”
Nilofar told Reuters that Mansoor mostly keeps to himself. 15-year-old Sadam is staying with his uncle, also in Washington state. Sadam was similarly separated from his family at the Kabul airport when he went to go find water. “When Sadam came back with the water, his family was gone.” Soldiers then told him to board a plane, but he still wasn’t able to find them. Sadam does appear to be socializing with his cousins here, but the report said he regularly asks when he’ll see his parents. “I don’t know,” his uncle replies.
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), which has also advocated for Central American children fleeing to the U.S. for safety, last month issued guidance for protecting unaccompanied Afghan kids, writing they “have experienced extreme trauma in their flight from harm.”
“We still do not know how many Afghan children will seek international protection, but we do know that early reports suggest that children are arriving in many countries, including the United States, some having lost their families forever, others having been separated from their loved ones in the chaos of fleeing their homeland,” KIND president Wendy Young said. “What the United States and other nations do now will determine the trajectory of these children’s lives. The United States has a responsibility to get this right.”
Democrats and moderate Republicans thwart South Dakota conservatives on new redistricting plan
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In a fascinating development, a group of Republicans in the South Dakota House banded together with Democrats on Wednesday to pass a new legislative redistricting plan over the objections of a sizable bloc of conservative GOP dissenters. All seven Democrats present (one was excused) voted in favor of the map, along with 30 Republicans, while 31 Republicans were opposed, meaning Democrats provided the winning majority. The plan, which originated in the Senate, easily passed the upper chamber 30-2, with all three Democrats likewise in favor.
The Republican objectors complained that the map would double-bunk some of their members and undermine their ability to elect far-right legislators. But at issue as well was the matter of Native American representation. In particular, the new map places the northern parts of Rapid City, which are home to a large Native population, into a single legislative district, a move that Democratic state Sen. Red Dawn Foster would enhance the community’s voice.
In addition, the map preserves two districts that are split in half to give Native voters a better opportunity to elect their preferred candidates, shown as 26A/B and 28A/B in the image above. Normally, South Dakota legislative districts elect two representatives and one senator each (both chambers use the same map), but two House districts are divided into separate sections that elect one member each. At least one plan backed by conservatives would have done away with this approach.
The map now goes to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who has not yet indicated whether she will sign it into law.
As judge puts thumb on scales of justice, Rittenhouse’s likely acquittal creates recipe for violence
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We may have an answer for the right-wing “civil war” devotee who asked Charlie Kirk the other week: “When do we get to start using the guns?” Judging from the way the trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is proceeding—and from the way right-wing pundits and politicians are responding—this week, the answer is: The day teenager Kyle Rittenhouse is inevitably acquitted for murdering two men at a Black Lives Matter protest last summer.
Rittenhouse’s acquittal is largely a foregone conclusion. And not because the evidence points to his innocence—Rittenhouse did, after all, kill a mentally ill man whose only acts of aggression included shouting at him, flinging a plastic bag with his personal effects in them, and reaching for his gun. On the other hand, the prosecution’s case has been a mixed bag at best—but more because the judge in the case, Bruce Schroeder, has placed his thumb so heavily on the scales of justice here, often in plain view. More broadly, however, right-wing political figures and extremists discussing the matter on social media are not merely defending Rittenhouse but valorizing him, holding up his murderous acts as heroic vigilantism, and demanding that other like-minded “patriots” follow in his footsteps.
It’s a recipe for an outbreak of eliminationist violence directed at “the left”—who these right-wing ideologues define broadly as “antifa,” Black Lives Matter, socialists, anti-police protesters, and for that matter merely liberal Democrats who support President Joe Biden. The day when the jury declares Rittenhouse innocent will become a beacon for the radical right, a giant flashing green light signaling permission to begin “using their guns,” telling them their long-awaited day to “begin killing these people” without consequence or compunction has finally arrived.
We know this because that is not only what they have been telling themselves in the runup to the trial, but it’s what they and their Republican enablers are now shouting from the rooftops. Leading the parade on Twitter was Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance of Ohio, who posted a video ranting about the trial and denouncing the prosecutor for even filing charges against Rittenhouse:
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us as patriots to stand up. Because if you don’t fight back against the lawlessness, if we don’t defend this young boy who defended his community when no one else was doing it, it may very well be your baby boy that they come for. It’ll be your children whose life they try to destroy when no one else is defending their communities.”
Vance repeatedly described Rittenhouse as someone who was “defending his community,” even though he did not live in Kenosha, but in Illinois. He also repeatedly described the prosecutor as a “lawless thug” who was “trying to destroy his life.”
The trial itself, Vance contended, represented a societal sickness: “We leave our boys without fathers. We let the wolves set fire to their communities. And when human nature tells them to go and defend what no one else is defending, we bring the full weight of the state and the global monopolists against them.”
Tucker Carlson, who had adamantly defended Rittenhouse immediately after the shootings, continued in the same vein, blaming the violence on the “radicals” who were “burning down cities” and extolling the virtues of vigilantism as a natural consequence. He also claimed the Rittenhouse has “already won his case,” then observed that “if you take a step back from the Rittenhouse story, you see something else entirely, you see violent insanity completely out of control in the middle of an American city. And the question is how did that happen in our country and why did nobody stop it?”
“The question, then, is how exactly are we surprised when a 17-year-old lifeguard from Illinois decides to step in?” Carlson concluded, sounding ominously like Charlie Kirk’s interlocutor. “They hate it when you say that, but it’s an entirely fair question. When legitimate authority refuses to do its duty, its sworn duty, others will fill the vacuum. That is always true. It’s a physics principle.”
Carlson’s Fox News colleague, Greg Gutfeld, similarly chimed in that “all Rittenhouse did was to fill the void that the government left open.”
“Those two people should never ever should have been out on the streets and it forced citizens to become the police,” Gutfeld said.
Other right-wing pundits valorized Rittenhouse as a youth role model. As Kristen Doerer reports at Flux, one of these is Ed Martin, president of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, devoted an extended rant on his podcast defending the teenager.
“And my point here in setting that up is Kyle Rittenhouse was a completely—his conduct was completely consistent with what Americans should do,” Martin wrote. “Stand up for the property, stand up for their towns, stand up for what’s happening. He is a hero—that’s true. Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero. Kyle Rittenhouse should be regarded as someone who did the right things.”
Moreover, his example is worthy of emulation, Martin opined: “He stepped up in a way that was, frankly, it was much more, it was much more worthy of praise than the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Americans that sat home and watched cities burn.”
These themes have been the right’s primary argument in support of Rittenhouse’s murders since he was arrested. Moreover, the undercurrent in all of these arguments is to create permission for right-wing “patriots” ginned up on right-wing propaganda to act out their shared violent fantasies.
And it has been from the outset. At far-right Proud Boys rallies rallies that followed the Kenosha shootings, participants began showing up wearing T-shirts declaring “Kyle Rittenhouse Did Nothing Wrong,” and extolling his murders: “The Tree of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time to Time With the Blood of Commies,” read the back of one.
Far-right Twitter maven and Gateway Pundit writer Cassandra Fairbanks retweeted an admirer’s post after Rittenhouse’s arrest: “I don’t give a fuck anymore. I gone full Cassandra. Kill all the idiots violently terrorizing our towns. If the white suprematist [cq] do it then they’re more useful than elected officials.”
“Yeah,” responded Fairbanks, “I’m literally just sitting here like … maybe some people will think twice about rioting tomorrow.”
The primary source of their permission for violence is the eliminationist narrative the right has concocted about antifa and Black Lives Matter, concocted out of ideological and racial hysteria and conspiracy theories, depicting them as a demonic threat to the American republic. This narrative has become extraordinarily widespread, as well as deeply imbedded into the nation’s political discourse, thanks largely to its constant repetition both by leading Republicans—notably Donald Trump—as well as “mainstream” right-wing media like Fox News.
We saw during jury selection for the federal civil lawsuit trial against the lethal 2017 “Unite the Right” rally organizers in Charlottesville that this wildly distorted view of “the left” has spread deeply enough to affect jury pools as well as court proceedings. In the Rittenhouse trial, it’s become clear that not only the jury may be affected, but so is the judge overseeing the proceedings, Bruce Schroeder.
Schroeder, as Will Bunch explored on Twitter and at the Philadelphia Inquirer, has a troubling history of pushing “law and order” politics in his courtroom, as well as indulging in dubious courtroom behavior and head-scratching rulings. He already had informed attorneys in the case that they could not describe the three men as “victims,” but would permit defense attorneys to describe them as “looters,” “rioters,” or “arsonists,” even though none of the three were ever accused of those crimes.
This week, Schroeder also:
- Called on the court to applaud a defense witness, who was there to testify that Rittenhouse was justified in taking two lives, for being a veteran. Schroeder, noting that it was Veterans Day, asked if anyone in the court was a veteran; when witness John Black said he was, Schroeder called for the court to applaud him. Jurors joined in on the applause.
- Rejected video of Rittenhouse shooting one of his victims, claiming the using Apple’s zoom functions might distort the image. “iPads, which are made by Apple, have artificial intelligence in them that allow things to be viewed through three-dimensions and logarithms,” defense attorneys insisted. “It uses artificial intelligence, or their logarithms, to create what they believe is happening. So this isn’t actually enhanced video, this is Apple’s iPad programming creating what it thinks is there, not what necessarily is there.” Schroeder agreed.
- Kept forgetting to silence his phone, whose ringtone is the Lee Greenwood song “God Bless the USA.” The song is the anthem of the tea party/“Patriot” right, and is used at Trump rallies as his entrance theme.
- Refused to permit prosecutors to ask defense witness Drew Hernandez, a pseudo-journalist who specializes in filming and posting misleadingly edited videos about antifascists and anti-police protesters, about his work for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s Real America’s Voice network. Hernandez also was present at the Jan. 6 insurrection inside the Capitol, before which he had spoken at the “Stop the Steal” rally, telling the crowd: “We punch back, we fight back. Because we will not go down without a fight. We will not go down without bloodshed. If they want a second civil war, then they got one. I will fight to the very last breath.” Schroeder ruled that the jury could not learn about his background because “this is not a political trial.”
- Tried to make a joke to the court, after the jury had filed out, about the lunch that had been ordered that day: “I hope the Asian food isn’t coming … isn’t on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor.” (The joke went over the heads of everyone who wasn’t a regular viewer of Fox News, which has repeatedly run stories about supply chain issues for Asian goods coming in to Long Beach—issues that in fact are primarily the result of Donald Trump’s trade wars with China and other nations.)
Most legal observers have observed that the trial’s outcome is a foregone conclusion, and many believe the primary blame lies with Schroeder and his handling of the proceedings—particularly how he has intervened at every juncture when the prosecutor has trapped Rittenhouse in a lie. Some observers describe this style as “pro-defense”—which is consistent with the judge’s record—but family members of the victims surrounding the Kenosha unrest are outraged.
“It seems like he’s aiming to let this man out of this courthouse scot-free and we’re not going to let that happen,” Justin Blake, the uncle of Jacob Blake, whose shooting by a police officer sparked the Kenosha protests, told The Washington Post. “If it happens, we’re not going to be quiet about it.”
Right-wing extremists are already stepping up their threatening behavior, and doing so with apparent confidence that they will face no consequences for doing so. A militia group called the Kenosha Strong Patriots posted the name, photo, and home address of Rittenhouse’s chief prosecutor on Telegram. A participant disingenuously claimed: “This is absolutely not an encouragement to violence. Just would be nice to see a peaceful protest outside his home like the left does every time they don’t like something.”
Greg Sargent of The Washington Post observes that the embrace of Rittenhouse’s vigilantism is occurring in the context of a general absorption of a violent ethos into the fabric of the Republican Party, which includes their ongoing valorization of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and Congressman Paul Gosar’s recent anime video portraying a fantasy in which he kills his Democratic colleague.
The thread running through all these events and controversies is the belief that liberals are so wicked that violence and the threat of violence are reasonable responses to the possibility of them getting their way. Right along with that belief is a fantasy, that of a man (almost always a man) who rather than being an ordinary schlub at the mercy of a world in which he has no power is actually bursting with testosterone and potency, someone who can and perhaps should become a killing machine.
That’s the story of the Jan. 6 rioters, who believed they could break down doors and smash windows and the American system of government would bend to their will.
It’s Rittenhouse’s story, too: When you go to a protest with a rifle, you’ve cast yourself as a potential killer in a righteous cause, and a killer was what he became. He’s now being cheered on by all those who stockpile weapons and say our country is headed for a civil war.
The larger narrative being spun out of the Kenosha courtroom is chilling to anyone who believes in American democracy: Armed vigilantes not only are justified in opening fire on protesters, but more of them are needed in every place where there is an anti-police protest. As Josh Marshall observes at Talking Points Memo, this is inexorably where the legal logic being used to free Rittenhouse—as well as the raging rhetoric of his right-wing supporters—inevitably leads.
The aggression carries the seeds of justification within it. You show up looking for trouble on yet another of these right wing murder safaris like Rittenhouse, with his mother chaperoning, was taking part in. You’re looking for trouble and when you find it that’s your justification for taking the next step. That’s not how self-defense is supposed to work. But we can see in this case how the interplay of open carry and permissive self-defense statutes do just that.
Perhaps the most telling factor is that the self-defense arguments raised by Rittenhouse’s defenders are clearly not applicable, in their worldview, to left-wing activists who engage in violence. We already know this from the case of Michael Rienoehl, the antifascist who gunned down a Proud Boys supporter on the streets of Portland last summer, shortly after Rittenhouse’s rampage.
Rienoehl, too, had claimed that he acted in self-defense. But because he went on the lam, federal marshals hunted him down and killed him in cold blood, under dubious circumstances that nonetheless ended in the officers’ exoneration. Rienoehl’s guilt, however, was proclaimed by Trump and Attorney General William Barr beforehand, and Trump later bragged about how he was summarily executed: “They didn’t want to arrest him,” he told a rally.
Pseudonymous pundit Julius Goat adroitly observed on Twitter:
One thing that the Rittenhouse trial throws into stark relief is a strongly held belief among a huge percentage of white conservatives that people protesting for Black lives should be killed, and that white conservatives should be allowed to personally do it.
They are protecting their right to self-defense as exclusive to white conservatives.
No white conservative with a gun can ever be deemed a threat worthy of self defense.
It’s also not difficult to see where this all leads: To a fresh wave of eliminationist vigilante violence mounted by the American right, directed at anyone they deem their political enemies. It’s no longer a question of if, but when.
And when they “get to use the guns” may come sooner than we expect.
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: How driving a bus epitomizes 2021
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Ben Casselman/NY Times:
The number of U.S. workers quitting their jobs in September was the highest on record.
Employers are still struggling to fill millions of open jobs—and to hold onto the workers they already have.
More than 4.4 million workers quit their jobs voluntarily in September, the Labor Department said Friday. That was up from 4.3 million in August and was the most in the two decades the government has been keeping track. Nearly a million workers quit their jobs in leisure and hospitality businesses alone, reflecting the steep competition for workers there as the industry rebuilds from last year’s pandemic-induced shutdowns.
Abdallah Fayyad/Boston Globe:
Stop nationalizing local elections
There’s no single blueprint for how Democrats can win elections. What worked for Eric Adams in New York would not have worked for Michelle Wu in Boston.
Mayor-elect Michelle Wu’s victory in Boston was in some ways a rebuke to Adams’s in New York. She ran an unapologetically progressive campaign in which she called for a city-scaled Green New Deal, rent control, and free transit. And when it came to policing — an issue at the center of electability conversations among Democrats — Wu took a tough stance and stood firm in her call to reallocate some police funds to social services, and she still managed to win by nearly 30 percentage points against a moderate who was widely seen as the more police-friendly candidate. (It wasn’t just Wu: Kendra Hicks and Tania Fernandes Anderson, candidates for Boston City Council who campaigned on reducing police funding, also won by big margins.)
Maggie Koerth/FiveThirtyeight:
Would You Manage 70 Children And A 15-Ton Vehicle For $18 An Hour?
How the nationwide school bus driver shortage helps explain our economic weirdness.
It isn’t an easy job. The kids don’t behave. Some, unsure of their own addresses, can’t tell Steele where to go. When parents get angry at a system that isn’t working, they blame Steele. And the company that runs the buses has packed her schedule to the point that there’s no longer time left to pee between runs. She’s thinking of quitting, even though she knows that will make things even harder for the families relying on her…
As the bus driver shortage continues, parents and drivers, often women on both sides, have been stretched to the breaking point as they try to do more with less — less time, less money, less help, less of a sense of safety and respect. “This problem existed before COVID, but nobody wanted to hear about it, especially the school districts,” said Zina Ronca, a driver supervisor for DuVall Bus Service in West Grove, Pennsylvania, who has been in the industry for nearly two decades. There haven’t been enough school bus drivers nationwide for years. But it took a pandemic to make that shortage visible and painful to more than just the drivers themselves.
Magdi Semrau/Editorial Board ($$):
In the controversy over ‘race’ in public education, journalists can’t cover the story properly by amplifying white voices only
That Black people are invisible from the public education debate shows just how intellectually impoverished the conversation is.
Despite the repeated falsehoods on the right, it is extremely rare for a curriculum to devote considerable attention to racism as a systemic and ever-present problem. Rather, the opposite is usually taught: that racism and racists are far, far away and that children are color-blind.
Anti-Vaxxers and Politicians Push Germany to the Brink
Many in Germany thought the worst of the pandemic was behind them. But the country is now being slammed by the fourth wave – fueled by millions of people who refuse to be vaccinated and political leaders who have abdicated leadership. The situation, say virologists, is grave.
Nobody really wanted to listen to him in the last few months. He was seen as a killjoy, dragging down the mood. That annoying guy from Berlin’s Charité University Hospital. German politicians also studiously ignored his warnings of a difficult fourth epidemic wave – of a deadly corona autumn. But here we are. Because as it happens, Germany’s best-known virologist, Christian Drosten, in concert with many of his fellow scientists, had been spot on.
Countries with high vaccination rates like Spain and Portugal, says Drosten now, “could definitively leave the pandemic behind them” in spring. But in Germany, because of the many people who still refuse to be vaccinated and due to the sluggish booster campaign, is “still miles away” from that. “As soon as Delta strikes with full force, the hospitals will quickly be overwhelmed,” Drosten warns.
Sound familiar?
McKay Coppins/Atlantic:
Inside the Red-State Plot to Take Down a Top Trump Ally
Mike Lee, the former Trump critic, and current Trump acolyte, may be vulnerable in 2022. An unusual coalition of opponents in Utah is trying to unseat him.
First elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, Lee has long rankled the local establishment in Utah, where he is viewed by many as a showboating obstructionist whose penchant for provocation routinely embarrasses his home state and its predominant religion. Lee’s MAGA makeover during the Trump presidency served only to exacerbate that perception. Now, as he prepares to run for reelection next year, Lee is bracing for a concerted, multifront campaign to unseat him. He seems to know that a third term isn’t guaranteed.
News Roundup: Bannon indicated; Biden's victory leaves media quiet; GOP in disarray
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It is Friday.The biggest news of the day is the indictment of Trump stooge Steve Bannon.The Biden administration has logged a victory in passing at least the first half of an infrastructure bill. You would be hard-pressed to realize this if you only read the “liberal” media. As vaccines for the younger ones in our society roll out, and a bill that might actually help Americans of all age groups moves through our virtually stagnant legislature, the GOP continues to promote the one thing they know how to promote: make-em-up culture wars—free of facts and context. Oh yeah, something happened with Steve Bannon.
Here are some of the things you may have missed:
- Steve Bannon has been indicted for contempt of Congress, arrest warrant reportedly issued
- Allegedly neutral reporter has a problem with how Vice President Kamala Harris says ‘the’
- Far-right favorite Madison Cawthorn announces bid for new congressional seat he barely represents
- McConnell warns Biden, Democrats not to do exactly what he did to the Supreme Court for Trump
- New audio of Trump demonstrates how little concern he had for Pence during Jan. 6 siege
- Ted Cruz conveniently forgets history of conservatives like Elvis Presley promoting vaccines
- Rage over masks and CRT bleed together in hundreds of Facebook groups targeting public schools
- Republicans aren’t just in disarray—they’re at war with each other
And from the Daily Kos community:
- What are you reading? November 12, 2021
- Outrage over SNL’s “mean” impression of Boebert. The problem? It was no impression-just her talking.
- Jamelle Bouie in today’s NYT suggests a path to fix political gerrymandering – I recommend the hike
- Alabama Insurrectionist Arrested After Flipping Bird To Democracy And Attacking Cop With A Flagpole
Black high schooler attacked by students in KKK costumes on Halloween, says lawyer
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In an absolutely disturbing nightmare scenario, a Black teenager in Woodsboro, Texas, says he was attacked by three fellow teens wearing costumes resembling Ku Klux Klan (KKK) robes. The high schooler, whose identity has not been revealed as he is a minor, was out for Halloween when he was allegedly attacked by the teens with a taser gun, as reported by The Independent.
The survivor has legal representation via Matt Manning, an attorney, who gave a press conference on Wednesday. During the conference, Manning (correctly) pointed out that dressing up like a Klansman is not an accident. “For you to dress up as a Klansman, you have a specific intent of terrorizing,” he told reporters.
“That’s not kids being kids,” Manning stressed. “That’s not boys being boys.” He went on to say that “hijinks” when you’re in high school might involve, for example, throwing eggs at someone’s house—not dressing up as a KKK member and terrorizing a person of color.
In speaking to local outlet NewsWest9, Manning repeated a similar message, stressing that this isn’t a situation where youth “just happened to get into a fight” but rather a “specific act of terror” including perpetrators “emulating the members of a terrorist organization.”
According to Manning, his client wasn’t the only person terrorized on Oct. 31. While none of the identities have been revealed, Manning shared on Facebook that at least one other minor—who according to Manning, is younger than his client—shared a similar story. According to local outlet KSAT, Manning believes there might be five other victims in addition to his client, from the same night, though not all may have been shocked by a taser—some might have been chased or otherwise terrorized, according to Manning.
Because the alleged perpetrators are minors, their identities also have not been revealed. Manning has said, however, that three teenage boys involved in the attack were allowed to participate in a high school football game following the attack. The Woodsboro school district has issued a statement saying the school can’t discipline students involved because the attack occurred off-campus and not during a school-sponsored event.
As of now, there are no criminal charges filed or arrests made. The race of the attackers has not yet been made public. According to Jeremy Coleman, the head of the Corpus Christi NAACP chapter, per the Associated Press, he’s considering the assault a hate crime until proven otherwise.
You can watch the press conference below.
43% of Republicans say they want no teaching on the history of racism whatsoever
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Henry Ford famously said, “History is more or less bunk.” Of course, he was a horrible, virulent racist who Hitler praised as an “inspiration” in Mein Kampf, so his sentiment makes a certain amount of sense. To racists, that is. After all, if you can ignore the long and dark history of antisemitism in Europe, you can whitewash pretty much anything.
And, as if to prove systemic racism is a real thing that absolutely should be taught to kids of all ages, Republicans are doing their level best to ignore it. In other words, they’re treating racism like it’s COVID-19, Jan. 6, or common decency.
The latest? According to a new Monmouth University poll, 43% of Republicans think the history of racism in America shouldn’t be taught in public schools at all, while a slim majority (54%) think it should be. This means any lessons on the history of racism, not just classroom instruction on critical race theory—which, to be fair, is taught in grade school about as often as superstring theory.
According to Insider:
In what it referred to as a “test of message framing,” Monmouth also polled voters on whether they approved of teaching critical race theory in public schools. Overall, 43% of voters supported teaching it, including 75% of Democrats, 16% of Republicans, and 40% of independents.
“The public acts on its perceptions of the world around them. Sometimes those perceptions align with objective reality and sometimes they do not. Whoever controls the message controls how the public will react. As the huge differences in the poll questions on teaching race show, a negative visceral message can be very powerful in reframing an issue in the public’s mind. The same is true for a massive spending bill as we saw with the talk of ‘death panels’ during the ACA (Obamacare) debate in 2010,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Of course, the “negative visceral message” Republicans have used to attack everything from Obamacare to police reform to the Build Back Better plan is that, somewhere, somehow, a Black person might benefit from these programs and reforms. So an honest look at our history scares the bejeezus out of Republicans. With the benefit of historical perspective, these little kiddos in school might come to the conclusion—on their own!—that Republicans and the plutocrats who succor them have been using race as a wedge to maintain the status quo for decades. Though, granted, they probably won’t figure that out until high school at the earliest.
This poll seemingly underscores how a significant portion of Republicans view opposition to critical race theory as part of a general desire to avoid discussions on the history of racism in America altogether.
Yup, as everyone knows, avoiding discussions of problems is the very best way to solve them. Though I’m not sure why these Republicans think their kids are such delicate little snowflakes. I survived watching Roots in 1977. I think kids can handle hearing about the Middle Passage, the KKK, Jim Crow, and the historic fight for civil rights. If it makes white kids feel a little queasy, imagine how Black kids must feel when they’re basically told none of this should matter.
Of course, Republicans being Republicans, they’re using these effed-up attitudes toward race as a cudgel to beat up on Democrats, who simply want an honest accounting of our history. Virginia’s governor-elect, Glenn Youngkin (wait, aren’t all elections automatically fraudulent now?), has vowed to ban critical race theory in Virginia schools. He might as well sign an executive order prohibiting chemistry 101 students from enriching uranium during open lab hours, but then common sense is sort of a hindrance when all you really care about is ginning up white grievance.
It made comedian Sarah Silverman say, “THIS IS FUCKING BRILLIANT,” and prompted author Stephen King to shout “Pulitzer Prize!!!” (on Twitter, that is). What is it? The viral letter that launched four hilarious Trump-trolling books. Get them all, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.
School board member files criminal report with sheriff's office over book by queer, Black writer
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Eager as ever to jump backward in time, conservatives have used their time amid a global pandemic to push anti-queer legislation and try to ban books. As Daily Kos has covered, we’ve seen librarians face potential obscenity charges over stocking books with LGBTQ+ and sexual education themes. We’ve heard Texas school administrators suggest teachers need to include an “opposing” view of the Holocaust when they stock their classroom libraries. School board members in Virginia are suggesting it’s time to literally burn books. And of course, the enormous hysteria over critical race theory (CRT) has taken over a number of school boards.
As reported by the Palm Coast Observer, Jill Woolbright, a member of the school board in Flagler County, Florida, and a retired classroom teacher, filed a criminal report over an LGBTQ+ book available in three school libraries in the district. Woolbright argues that the book (All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson) violates state laws against obscenity because of sexually explicit material. The book is an essay collection by Johnson, an openly nonbinary, queer Black journalist, that details their childhood, adolescence, and college years.
Woolbright told the outlet she’s concerned about the “children” in the district, and she wants the book to be investigated as a “crime in our media center.” For now, all four copies of the book have been pulled from library shelves until the board makes a decision. According to Flagler Live, however, no parents have filed complaints about the book; in fact, in the history of the school board, no one has challenged or tried to ban a book.
“This is pretty heavy stuff, violating our own policies,” she continued. “That’s why I felt the need to file the report, so I know it will be investigated.” The Observer reports that Woolbright gave the sheriff’s office a copy of the book and asked for it to be submitted as evidence.
Raw Story reports that Woolbright participated in a WNZF radio show in May and described her participation on the school board as her “calling.”
“Who I am is a child of God and it influences everything I say and do,” she explained, “because that’s what it means to be a child of God.” Woolbright went on to clarify that she is a Christian, and “people knew that going in,” and that her faith affects her decisions. (You can listen to the full interview via Facebook here.)
Interestingly, it’s unclear what constituents, specifically, Woolbright is advocating on behalf of; she references concerns for residents and high schoolers who might come across these books but is short on specific examples, names, or complaints from people. It’s also unclear if she, herself, has read the book.
All Boys Aren’t Blue, however, is both famous on its own merit, and because Republicans are absolutely furious it exists. As covered by my colleague Laura Clawson, for example, All Boys Aren’t Blue is one of the 29 titles recently pulled from library shelves in a Kansas school district. The title has been pulled from school libraries in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Arkansas, Virginia, Texas, and others already. As reported by Refinery 29, people have been flooding the book with negative reviews online as well.
In an interview with The Advocate, Johnson explains that while memoir is typically written for adults, they intentionally wrote this book, which they describe as both a memoir and a manifesto, with young adult readers in mind.
“If a topic that you deem as heavy can happen to a child,” Johnson explained. “Then it is not too heavy to discuss with that child.” They went on to say that children have to exist in a world where, for example, racism exists, and refusing to educate kids about these subjects doesn’t help them.
“My one book is not what is going to harm your child,” Johnson added. “It is the fact that you are not allowing them to understand the world that they live in that is ultimately going to harm your child.”